Boardcollector Surf Swap

I was fascinated to get a close up look at this piece of 80's innovation period design at the Green Cathedral Boardroom exhibition at the Woolongong City Art Gallery. A Phil Byrne shaped stringerless, light weight, high flotation design made for the small wave, fresh water conditions of the Allentown Pennsylvania wave pool, that briefly made it onto the world tour in 1985. The board formed part of the successful attack launched by Tom Carroll on possibly the worst waves ever to host a pro contest.

It's hard to find time to blog these days and it looks like I'm going to run out of time before the end of the year to get through my to 'do list'.

For each post I write I've generally gotta clean and ding fix a board, research it's history, photograph it, test ride it and try and get some pics of of it in action.

Here's a selection of the work in progress blogs on my 'to do' list.

Let me know if there is any one post in particular you'd like see me to get off my arse and finish first.

• Yellow Brewer.- 'Breath'.

TIm Winton's novel breath is the best piece of surf inspired fiction I've ever come across. In the book he makes reference to and mythologizes a particular yellow Dick Brewer gun.
In my travels I've come across a small number of these legionary boards including at the Longboard Collectors meet in Dana Point, Surfy Surfy in Encinitas and Randy Rarrick's Hawaiian surf auction in Honolulu.

Let's look at the pics in the light of the passages from the book.

• Emerald twin fin. Part 2.

I have 2 Steve Griffith shaped blue Emerald twin fins. I wrote about the first one in 'Bulli Bagus'. The second one is quite a different board. Its a little older, has a rounded pin tail and surfs very differently to the swallow tail. My notes say 'afraid of getting wet' as I found my self surfing this board alone at 4 to 5 ft on a Sunday just because it started to rain. Whats with surfers? Are they afraid to get wet?

• T&C blaster / martin potter.

Someone riding a one of Marin's old Dennis Peng shaped T&C twin fins

One of Martin's team boards from 1985

This post is about the results of the test ride of this T and C team board that rides a lot like a 'Blaster' or 'Lazor Zap'. I'm aiming to link it recent discoveries of vintage Martin Potter comp boards.

• Cheyne's hulls.

This going to be a lot of work. One of the most interesting shapes to come out of the innovation period was the hull shape that Ben Lexan conceived and Cheyne rode. It seems to me to be very under celebrated design because it looks to be the most major departure from conventional surfboard design thinking of the contemporary era. Geoff McCoy shaped they then stopped, I don't know why, a few Hot Buttered guys gave them a go. Bernie Crouch in Florida did a similar design for Cheyne at the time and today Revolution in California does copies of the original. But even that seems to be a very small number of people shaping and riding what seems to be an amazing an unique design.

• Dingo airbrush Aloha.

What happened to the art of the airbrush mural?

Why did they go out of fashion?

Did they become too expensive, did they become uncool or did the subject matter become too tasteless.

In the case of this board, yes.

Greg Clough shaped channel bottom pin tails

Aloha and Bolts. Funny that I should come across 2 x Greg Clough shaped single fin channel bottom recently. Let's talk about that.

"For Cheyne '80"

I don't know if I'm allowed to write about this one yet but it will be exciting when I can.

Funny Bolts

A folder full of unusual Lightning Bolts I've collected.

Hot Buttered twin fin for Derek Hynde

All about Derek Hynde and his time with Hot Buttered. A test ride of a personal rider.

Quivers

Quivers, I love them. If they are from the 80's I love them more.

Young Einstein

I haven't done a post in the series 'World's most famous obscure surfboards' in a long time. This one is particularly exciting to me because I think I might have actually got my have hands on a prop used in an Australian motion picture classic. How I ended up with it may end up being the most interesting part of the story.

My best wave ever.

Uluwatu. 7'4" Gunter Rhön.
I'm looking forward to sharing the story.

Tidy little Shawn Stussy shaped thruster from LA.

Bob McTavish Shy twin fin.

Ant Corigan in 1980 on a similar board.

• US made Lazor Zap

This is an ongoing story of getting this board back to OZ.

T and C didn't always use the yin and yang logo.

I thought I found a pre yin and yang t and c.

Is it the real thing or not?

What happened in WA?

What did Phil Byrne have to do with it?

• Greg Day's Energy thruster

Bretty hooked me up with the story of this very nice team rider thruster.

My first five cars

You can tell a lot about a man by his first 5 cars.

I'm ready to share the tale.

Rare Bob Mc Tavish innovative flat deck.

Very interesting piece of innovation period design.

Probably one of the most interesting I've seen.

Let's see what Bob has to say about it.

Whats up with Schroff.

Peter has been busy lately

Nick from Florida update.

He's also been hard at work.

Silver Flight.

Bob Hurley has been in touch.

Brothers Neilsen.

I've got a long story to tell you about how my family used to holiday in Surfers Paradise every Xmas.

Mecca for me was the Cavil Arcade Brothers Neilsen store. How I worship the boards with that tear drop logo, now I've got one.

Plus I got a nice pole cam tube ride selfie on a vintage single fin photo to share.

Steve Lis fish.

Yes, I came across 2 of them.

There is a very interesting history to the Lis Fish that I'm keen to share.

Nectar twin fin.

The saga continues. How I love Nectar twin fins.

I built a helmet cam.

I looked stupid, I embarrassed Jordy, but got the shots on the '78 Schroff.

Cosmic Dog

What a character.

Mc Coy. US v's AU.

Stussy Semi guns

I'm taking these finely foiled semi guns out at the Coalcliff Bombora for a run.

Early 80's Energy thruster

After 3 attempts at riding the checker board model I still haven't got a decent pic.

For a board that changed the world in a the space of 18 months its harder to ride than I would have thought.

1982 Stubbies Surf Classic Burleigh

The 82 Stubbies was the pinicle of inovation period surfing and surfboard design. The heats included Mark Richards on his own hand shaped twin fin design, Cheyne Horan (winning) on a Geoff McCoy Laser Zap design with Ben Lexan designed winged Star fin, Rabbit Barthlemow on a channel bottom rounded pin tail Hot Stuff, Dane Kealoa on a T&C twin fin and Simon Anderson on his new 3 fin thruster design. Never before or since has there been such a variety of cutting edge surfboard design in one place.

Innovation Period - Definition

The innovation period of surfboard design has also been described as 'T2'. Meaning the second transition period, the first transition period of surfboard design was from late 60's to the early 70's, or short board revolution, where boards went from long boards (10') to short boards (6'), an exciting time for the likes of Dick Brewer and Bob Mc Tavish, who were sawing a foot off their boards at a time. The second transition period was from the late 70's to the early 80's when surf boards went from 1 fin to 3 fins and beyond.

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About Me

I've been collecting innovation period surf boards since 1990. I was trained as an industrial designer and I love surfboards as pieces of hydrodynamic design. I am an art lover and I appreciate surfboards as hand crafted sculptures and I admire their graphic designs and art works. Mainly I am a dedicated surfer and regularly surf each of the boards in my collection.